Limbo . The Boston Phoenix . 06-07-99

Limbo

DIRECTED BY: John Sayles

REVIEWED: 06-07-99

For a while it looks as if John Sayles might do for our largest state in Limbo what he did for the second-biggest in his masterpiece Lone Star. Set in contemporary Alaska, this independent veteran's latest deftly establishes the social, cultural, and personal details of his setting and characters; then he takes it all on a detour to nowhere. David Strathairn is lean, melancholy, and even sexy as Joe Gastineau, a former golden-boy fisherman who fell from grace with the sea after a fatal accident. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio gives her best performance yet (and demonstrates a decent set of pipes) as Donna De Angelo, an itinerant aging lounge singer between boyfriends and gigs and saddled with a bright but resentful daughter. The two hit it off, but just as it seems they might get their lives jump-started, Joe's shady brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko) shows up asking a favor. What follows is either an exercise in self-deconstruction or a lesson in how not to write an ending; with Limbo, Sayles shows how high, and low, he can go.

--Peter Keough

Full Length Reviews
Limbo
Limbo

Capsule Reviews
Limbo

Other Films by John Sayles
Lone Star
Men With Guns

Film Vault Suggested Links
Career Girls
With or Without You
Traveller

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